This Mess
by RoyalGirl22
Summary: Elizabeth Stark is the younger, adopted sister of Tony Stark. When he disappears after a demonstration, family bonds start to strain. Elizabeth is taken in by SHIELD and become part of the team in The Avengers.
1. Prologue

Prologue

**I don't own the Avengers, or Marvel, just my OC**

Tony Stark, you may have heard of him. He's pretty popular now. You know, Genius, Billionaire, Weapons Producer. He's been on the cover of Time more than once in the past couple of years. If you know him a bit better, you'd know he's a womanizer. He's probably slept with hundreds of women. But, what you wouldn't know from watching the news, or being in his private fan club (which is how you might know about his womanizing, long story...), is that he's really nice to some people. One of those people is Pepper, his assistant (or whatever he's calling her now). Another is me. Elizabeth Stark, younger sister of Tony Stark.

Okay, not really. I'm adopted from Russia, but I spent a grand total of two weeks there until being adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Stark, so I consider myself American. And more importantly, part of Stark family. It was my thinking that, that got me into this mess.

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><p><p>

**A/N: Thanks to my beta and best friend, rm328, and my other bestie, 22pirates13wizards, for helping me. Please review, this is short, I promise the next chapter will be more than 150 words.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, just Elizabeth  
>Tony: You're right! I do.<br>Me: No. You don't either *crying* Someone else does. He even owns you.  
>Tony: What? *crying with me*<strong>

I should probably explain what the mess is, but I should start at the beginning. It all started when Tony left for a trip. He was supposed to return that day and I was sitting in my room. I shouldn't really call it a room. More of a workshop with a hammock in the back by the bathroom door. JARVIS's voice crackled on the intercom. I made a mental note to have Tony fix the crackle. I would do it, but he doesn't let me. Someday, I'm going to hack in there and set it to Russian. That was one language I knew, I prioritize learning it, as was my heritage.

"Ms. Elizabeth,"JARVIS's annoying voice with the terrible British accent stated, "James Rhodes would like to talk to you."

"Tell him I'm busy!"

"A proud member of the US army probably will not take a response like that too well, especially coming from a fourteen year old girl. He says it's urgent"

"I'm smarter than a fourteen year old. And more mature. But I'll go. But send some steel to my room, I'm out. Oh, and a solder." If I must leave, I might as well get the solder. Tony doesn't like me 'playing' with it.

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><p>I walked out of my room and into the elevator. I punched in the button (ML) for main level. I felt the elevator lurch upwards. You see, my room is lower than the basement. It's like just like bunker in this mass of rock the house it sitting on. The mass of rock in Miami, Tony would have said, I thought. I missed him. We were pretty much all we had left of family.<p>

"Elizabeth," Rhodey said with a smile as I stepped out. He looked fine, but his voice told me otherwise.

"What's wrong?" I immediately exclaimed, worried.

"Woah. Slow down. There's nothing wrong."

"Yes there is. I can hear it in your voice. Tony's supposed to come back tonight. Oh, is his flight delayed? He makes such a huge fuss over that."

"No, I'm afraid not. Tony went missing yesterday. Somewhere in Afghanistan. We think he's being held captive."

"Wait. Yesterday? Why did you have to wait til today to tell me?"

"I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you in person, but I wasn't in town."

"Tony's missing, and he could be out in Afghanistan being tortured to death. And you come to tell me in person? You could be searching. Aren't you supposed to be there, protecting him?" I had to many questions and I could tell Rhodey was too tired and worried to answer, "Wait, no. I'm going to go my room and work on something. You are going to get some rest, and we'll discuss this tomorrow." I tried to adopted an 'I'm being mature' voice, and it either worked, or Rhodey knew better than to argue with my decision, because he left with his very small bag.

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><p>I sat down in a corner of my room, sinking down into a mass of pillows and blankets and started crying. Tony was all I had left, and now he might be gone. Mr. Stark (Howard Stark) was amazing, I only knew him, not his wife, she died before I really understood. When Mr. Stark died, it was just Tony, Pepper, James and me. Except Rhodey didn't really like talking to me. Pepper was okay, we were close enough. We just didn't connect. If Tony was gone, I was alone.<p>

I looked over at my work table. A soldering iron was sitting on the table along with about ten eight-foot rods, three inches in diameter, of stainless steel. JARVIS knew me so well, Tony always brought pipes, which are really nice for some things, I just hardly worked with them. Also, somehow JARVIS knew I would prefer stainless. It was just what I wanted, but I couldn't bring myself to get up and start working.

I knee I probably looked like a mess, if I wore makeup, it would be running dow my face. The pillow beneath me was wet from me burying my head into it. I slowly got up and walked into the bathroom and reached for a tissue. Seventeen and a half tissues later, my face was still bright red, and I still had that hard feeling in the back of your throat that you sometimes get from crying, but my face was dry and I looked better. I looked at the time, noticing my stomach growling. Usually Tony or Pepper would bring takeout, but it was Pepper's day off, and Tony wasn't here, so it left me with two options, order takeout, which I could do perfectly fine, or make something.

I didn't think that Pepper or Tony would have anything in the fridge except takeout, but I was wrong. We had a fully stocked kitchen, and it was starting to smell really good. Pepper had wandered in while I was cooking, but I think she could tell I'd been crying so she left me alone. After making the pasta, I realized I had way too much food for myself. I tossed the pasta with basil, cilantro, olive oil and tomatoes. Then I went to the stove. The chicken was pan seared in half oil, half Elizabeth-Tears. I finished and dished out three plates. I grabbed them all and gave one to Rhodey, he thanked me, but I didn't want to disturb him, so I left.

I moved over to where Pepper had moved in, as she was going to run the company until Tony was found, and handed her the plate. As I walked away, she called out,

"Elizabeth, wait! I want to talk to you."

I turned around. She gestured to a chair and I sat down.

"You're a smart girl." Assuming that was slightly rhetorical, I didn't respond, "you've passes college already," I knew it was rhetorical then, "I know it's going to be hard for you getting by without Tony, but -"

"How does that relate to me being smart? And you say that like it's going to be a long time until Tony gets back." I protested. I felt the tears welling up, and I tryed really hard to keep them down.

"Let me finish," she sounded annoyed, "It's going to be hard without him here to run the company, and I'm going to need some help from someone, and I was thinking you. Do you want to help me run Stark™ until he gets back?"

**A/N: I'll admit, I cryed along with Elizabeth when she got back to her room. Please review. **


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:**

**If I owned the Avengers, I probably wouldn't be posting on here.**

**I am so sorry for not posting. You don't need to forgive me. I just procrastinated for an entire 6 months.**

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><p>=Flashback=<p>

"Let me finish," Pepper sounded annoyed, "It will be hard without him here to run the company, and I'm going to need some help from someone, and I was thinking you. Do you want to help me run Stark™ until he gets back?"

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><p>"Unless I get a better job offer, than yes," I was reluctant though, knowing that deep down, Pepper didn't like me that much, no matter what she showed.<p>

"Thanks," she said, "for the help and the irresistibly good food."

I smiled, turned in my heels, and walked out the door.

Once back in my room, I say down at my desk, pushed aside the materials, and set down my plate. I ate, but nothing really tasted good, the sour feeling in my mouth from learning that my older brother, my confidant, my family, and my role-model (though at times a little irresponsible) was gone, possibly being tortured for information, out plans for weapons of mass destruction (his specialty, along with women), or worse, dead.

With the empty food in my mouth, I focused on not becoming depressed like Pepper might be, and working on making something. I didn't know exactly what I was thinking about making when I asked JARVIS about the materials, I just wanted to enjoy something I usually couldn't do without people breathing down my neck.

What would Tony trek me to do?

Forget about him. Screw the rules.

Or something arrogant about how nothing can happen without him.

I'm going to go with the first. I walked across my room towards my endless expanses of "harmless" supplies (though I did know how to make a bomb out of a few of the items). I pulled out a few wires, lenses, mirrors, small LED lights, numerous sizes of batteries and a few other objects. Then I hooked up the coolest part of my workshop, the laser cutter (Tony's design), with my computer, and programmed it to cut the right shapes for me, I wanted to update Tony's 3D Holographic Projecting System.

See that was the thing, Tony was always good at tinkering, making things, Peppers was the accountant/executive assistant, Rhodey was the militant, and I was the second prodigy, I could make items, battle plans, and spreadsheets, but I really was more into being out there, in the battlefield (Tony would never let me). That was the problem. I was too precious to let loose. The heir to the company (Though I'm sure Tony has his fair share of kids).

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><p>"Hello, Stark Enterprises. This is Elizabeth Stark." I recited into the phone.<p>

"Hello Liz," I knew that voice. It was Obidiah Stane.

"I told you not to call me Liz."

"Oh, I'm sorry. How's Tony?"

"You know just as much as I do." I relashed, "though I wouldn't place my bets on you getting the company. I'm still in charge."

"Oh, I could call the police on that one, I'm not sure if a minute is legally allowed to handle a munitions company. Though, if you came over and played a game of chess, I might be able to be a little lenient."

Oh no. He did not just pull out the chess card. When he was a kid, he killed the dog of an opponent who was better than him, just so the kid would be distracted, "thanks, but no thanks."

"If you insist."

"Now, why did you call?"

"Well, you brother is my business partner, and I'd like to do a little business."

"Like what?"

"Oh, just exchange a few ideas, trade plans, talk about the future."

Okay. This was getting a little uncomfortable. And Pepper's area of expertise. Pressing the receiver to my shoulder, "Pepper!"

"Yes?"

"It's Obidiah. He'd like to 'talk business'"

"Alright, but while I'm talking, you should go over and look at the email I just received. I would prefer if you respond under my name." She said, and snatched the phone.

I walked over to get computer. The email opened was from the Florida State Police, starting that a minor was reported in charge of a munitions company, and that if there was any more proof, Stark Industries would be sent to trial.

Obidiah. That son-of-a... he emailed them as he was talking.

I typed my response back.

_ Dear FSP,_

_Currently, the CEO of the company Stark Industries, Tony Stark, is away, but still in charge of the company. In his absence, I, Pepper Potts, have taken over the company, and am receiving help from a minor, but she is in no way directly in charge of, or running the company._

_Sincerely, _

_Pepper Potts._

I clicked send, and quickly received a reply, starting their thanks for the confirmimg information they were almost positive about, and that no charges were filled.

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><p><strong>AN: again, so sorry for not posting. All reviews are helpful, wanted and/or welcomed.**


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